Hooray! Nothing like a governor's race for a good time, eh? Well, we're past the primaries in Ohio and nothing surprising happened. For the Democrats, it'll be Amy Acton. For the Republicans, it'll be Vivek Ramaswamy. For the Libertarians, it'll be Don Kissick. There's also a write-in independent candidate, Tim Grady. With luck, the winner will end the practice of wasting taxpayer money to make metal signs and pay DOT workers to hang up the signs on the welcome to Ohio highway signs (if you need to catch up on this saga to end some political vanity, then please click here).
During the primaries I reached out to all the candidates to see where they stood on this small but easy issue to fix and heard crickets. Fortunately, I have better news to report now that we're in the general election period, but first, let's wrap up the primaries. Neither the Democratic or Libertarian primaries were competitive (though the Libertarian one had a write-in challenger), which lets you know that our democracy is not terribly healthy. Politics is so toxic currently that it must be hard to get someone to run for elected office. Maybe the ones that still do are just crazy, which might explain a lot about our society. Anyway, the Republican primary was technically competitive, but Ramaswamy won handily. Heather Hill was disqualified when she engaged in a public fight with her lieutenant governor running mate and he quit (one needs two willing candidates to form a ticket). Undeterred, she's back as a write-in candidate with a new running mate, running I guess as an independent this time. Casey Putsch, the opposing candidate who stayed on the ballot, also had his share of controversy, and seems to be sitting out the general election, though his website was still active until recently, so perhaps he was thinking 2030 before he pulled the plug.
For the general election, I followed up with the candidates to get the issue on their proverbial radar screens. I heard back from two of them. Hill thinks it's a "huge cost for the state" and she's going to look into it since "we need to save money wherever we can." The Kissick campaign was even more enthusiastic about the idea with campaign manager Steve Perkins telling me that the names on the highway signs "kind of irks us as well." As a result, I ordered a Kissick/Mills yard sign (you can see it in the picture still shrinkwrapped as it first arrived). Unfortunately, the candidates who got back to me have the proverbial uphill battle, but at least the idea is kicking around and maybe someday we'll get rid of the silly waste of money political vanity of sticking governors' names (and mayors' as well) off welcome road signs.
As for the governor's race, this year the Democrats actually have a chance due to Trump's unpopularity. Unfortunately, they maybe picked the one candidate who, in a year when almost any generic Democrat could win, might be so distasteful (basically, Ohio's Fauci) that the Republicans might continue their one-party rule in the state. We'll see. So far, the Republicans seem to think they're still running in a Republican primary and trying to smear Acton as a communist when they're not portraying her as a drunk and thinking that'll be effective. Attacking her as Ohio's Fauci and playing up her nanny state tendencies is probably the smarter strategy, but Ohio Republicans have never exactly been smart. The Democratic strategy of attacking Ramaswamy as a clueless billionaire is clever and might actually work even with Acton as the candidate. Regardless of who wins, Ohio will have a different type of governor, either a woman or a guy with dark skin, so it will be interesting. I just hope whoever wins takes down the current overlay signs and doesn't put up new ones, but that's a lot to hope for.
If you want to help and you live in Ohio, then please write your state representative or state senator (or both!) and ask to legislatively end this practice. It's a small matter, but that's why it should be easy to fix. Ask them to stuff it in the next "chicken bill" at the end of this legislative session.
If you find politics all too disgusting, then you might enjoy Fast Guy Slows Down, where the main character enjoys pooping on world leaders, which admittedly is kind of disgusting as well, but at least it's a change from them figuratively pooping on you as usual.
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